Erika Dohan (née Winter) was born in 1931 in Trnava, Czechoslovakia. Her parents were Viola and Leo Winter, and she had one brother. At the end of August 1944, the Germans invaded Slovakia and Erika and her family went into hiding with a Christian family. They were caught by the Gestapo in October 1944, after a neighbor gave them away, and they were sent to the Sered labor camp in Slovakia. On 1 November 1944, the family was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

There was no selection when they arrived at the camp, despite the fact that the transport was full of children and old people. Erika and her brother were eventually separated from their parents after about a week. Erika and her brother were liberated by the Red Army on 27 January 1945. (Her brother is not in the photograph).

In June 1949, Erika emigrated to Israel, where she later worked as a medical librarian. Today she lives in Haifa. A widow, she is the mother of one, and has three grandchildren.